Speaking about the team selection on Thursday, Ireland head coach Andy Farrell joked, “I did pose the question to our forwards coaches as to whether we should go with 7 backs & one forward, but they weren’t up for that.
Farrel said it shows the Springboks know exactly where they want to go with their game plan and we do the same with the subs we pick as well.
“I think it’s great. It obviously suits them and they obviously know their squad and what fits for them and so do we. I did pose the question to our forward coaches as to whether we should go with seven backs and one forward, but they weren’t up for that! I think it shows they know exactly where they want to go with their game plan and we do the same with the subs we pick as well.”
Farrell also said “Honestly, I didn’t have a reaction. We analyse South Africa like we analyse everyone else. But when it comes down to it, we take care of ourselves more than anything else and try to understand our plan.
“You have to make certain tweaks of course, like every week, whether that is from Romania to Tonga, or England to Samoa. There are always tweaks around the system they play, and the personnel they have. There is always that going on in the background.”
He also said that the Springboks’ seven-one bench split does not put extra pressure on his players.
“I don’t see it like that at all. I am pretty confident in the five forwards we have coming off the bench, and the impact they’re going to have and the type of game we’re going to play when that happens. It doesn’t have any bearing as far as that’s concerned. We’ve been able to analyse them with the seven-one split, and not that much changes. Obviously, they are fresh and they got dominance set-piece-wise in that game against New Zealand] but we would back our players to do the same.”